


When the Past Meets the Present

by sammikeys (penns_baby)



Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bathing/Washing, Blood Drinking, Feeding, Flashbacks, M/M, Rules, Running Away, Spanking, Spells & Enchantments, Spike goes by William sometimes, duh they are vampires, favored child, more tags will be added as I go
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-14
Updated: 2018-05-17
Packaged: 2018-12-02 03:40:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11501028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penns_baby/pseuds/sammikeys
Summary: William was turned as Angelus' favored childe. Being favored means you can never do anything without someone from the family present and he couldn't deal with that and ran. 100 years later he ends up in Sunnydale and meets his family again face to face.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all. So this is my first work for Buffy. Thought I would give it a try when this idea wouldn't leave me alone. So let me know what you think. I don't have a posting schedule because when I make one I cant stick to it. So I write when I can.

William felt like he had been running for so many years. In truth he had, he had been running for a little over a hundred years. That may not sound possible, and it’s not for a human. William is a vampire, he had been human once. A quiet man that devoted his life to caring for his mother and writing some truly awful poetry. Then in 1880, a dark-haired man had coerced him into an alley in London where he lived. That man’s name was Angelus, and he had come up to William at a party. He seemed to know exactly how the younger man felt and William was looking forward to having a friend for once. Angelus had asked him if he wanted forever, and naïve William hadn’t even stopped to consider what that meant. He just agreed with this mesmerizing man and then next thing he knew there was a piercing pain in his neck.

London 1880,

William opened his eyes and noticed almost instantly that he didn’t recognize the room he was in. Which made sense, because he didn’t remember making it home and to bed. Perhaps, he had drank too much and ended up in someone’s guest room. He wasn’t much of a drinker though, so he didn’t think that was what happened. He may have taken ill, that would explain why he couldn’t remember much about what happened. William knew he had to get up. He had to go find the owner of the house and thank them for their kindness before returning home to his mother. He wondered how long he had been asleep. He hoped it wasn’t too long his mother would be worried about him and he didn’t want her to fret in her condition.   
Very slowly he climbed to his feet. He didn’t want to fall down if he had been ill. He was surprised to find that his limbs felt strong. Almost as if he hadn’t just climbed out of bed. William walked over and opened the door to the room. Peering out into the hall he realized that he had no idea how the house was laid out. He was simply going to have to hope he didn’t get lost and make a bigger fool of himself.   
He found the staircase fairly quickly. This house wasn’t set up all that differently from his own. He was thankful for that. It wouldn’t do to have people believe that he was wondering around their house. He didn’t want to seem rude. Even with as strong as he felt, William still held onto the handrail going down the stairs. He didn’t want to fall down them, that would hurt. It might also aggravate any injuries he might also have from losing consciousness that he hadn’t found yet.   
The house seemed pretty empty. William was going to write a note thanking his hosts and then head home. He didn’t want to worry his mother any more than he had and the sun was beginning to rise. William hoped he would be able to get home before she awoke. Then he could simply tell her he had come in late and hadn’t wanted to wake her. He came across a door that was slightly open. Coming from inside he could hear two male voices speaking in low tones, but not too low that he couldn’t make out what they were saying. He could also see the faint glow from the firelight.   
“You’re sure this one is meant to be your favored?” The first voice questioned. He didn’t sound accusatory. He simply sounded curious and somewhat excited.   
“I could sense him from blocks away. I told you that.” This voice was deeper and more familiar. After thinking about it for a minute William recognized it to be the voice of Angelus. Of course, it all made sense now. They had gone for a walk to talk away from the hustle of the party. William must have taken ill on their walk and not knowing what else to do his new friend must have brought him home. That made sense and honestly made William feel a little better about he whole thing. William wondered what they were talking about. He couldn’t decide which would be more rude. To stand her unintentionally eavesdropping or to interrupt the conversation. This seemed like an important conversation even though he had no idea what they could be talking about.   
The choice was taken from him when a hand reached out and gripped his shoulder from behind. William was not proud of the way he jumped or the yelp that came from his mouth. He turned his head and dark haired women was standing behind him. William had been so involved with the voices he hadn’t heard her walk up behind him.  
“Now, children shouldn’t listen to conversations they aren’t part of.” She smiled and waved a finger in his face while she spoke. William opened his mouth to protest that he wasn’t a child. He was a full-grown man and didn’t need to be chastised like a misbehaving brat. He didn’t get the chance though before the door was pulled all the way open. Standing in the doorway was Angelus and about two steps behind him was another man. This man had light hair and gray eyes. He stood about a head shorter than Angelus did. Making the other man appear much bigger than he was.   
“William, you shouldn’t have been awake yet.” Angelus sounded surprised. William on the other hand was confused. How would Angelus know how long he would have been unconscious?   
“Are you a doctor?” It was the only explanation that William could come up with. That had to be it Angelus was a doctor that took it upon himself to take care of William. So, he was surprised when Angelus laughed. It wasn’t a mean laugh, it was the kind of laugh that made it seem like William had just told a joke.  
“Come in here William. I will explain everything to you.” Angelus put his arm around the younger man’s shoulders and led him into the room closing the door behind him.

Sunnydale 2001

William shook his head to clear the memories. He needed to focus and not on his family. Rumor had it that the slayer had a witch working for her. A powerful witch at that. William was going to try and strike a bargain with the slayer. He would help her while he was in Sunnydale in exchange for her witch doing a spell on him. After he had left his family everywhere he was they were. William got tired of constantly moving. He found a witch that did a spell for him. It would hide him from his family for fifty years before it needed to be redone. Now, he just needed a witch that was powerful enough to redo the spell. Now wasn’t the time for memories, now was the time to find the slayer and her witch.


	2. Chapter 2

William paced around the abandoned factory he called home waiting for the sun to go down. He couldn’t explain why, but he felt off. He felt like his skin was too small and any second he would shed out of it like a snake. The only explanation that he could come up with was that the spell was wearing off more and more each day. They would be able to track him now if they really tried. William knew better than to hope they would believe him dead. Dru was better than that, she would know he wasn’t dead and how he was hiding himself. That’s why he had worked so hard to make sure there was no way around the spell. Sometimes, William thought he was crazy. Actually, most that knew his story thought he was crazy. Then he remembered why he done this in the first place.

 

France 1882

William was two years old. Forget that he had been twenty, it had been explained to him that those twenty years didn’t matter. He was a lesser being then, now he was a god among men. So, with that mind set William was two years old. Currently he was also throwing a fit like a two-year-old.

“What do you mean I can’t go out? Even Dru gets to go out and she’s mad!” William couldn’t understand it. Everyone else was going out, but he wasn’t allowed to. Angelus had left two weeks ago for something he claimed was important. William and Dru had been left in the care of their brother. Penn was Angelus’ eldest child and William had been told that he had to treat his brother with the same respect he treated his sire with. William was trying to be good, he really was, but Penn was being unreasonable. 

“This is no place for a favored. I have explained this to you William. Sire left you in my care and I am not going to take you out and about in a city when there have been rumors of a slayer. Now, Sire will be home tomorrow evening. He has shortened his trip for you and then we will most likely be moving.” Penn, as always, sounded completely calm. It always made William a little stupid, getting over emotional and yelling while Penn was calm and collected. William knew Penn loved him, his whole family did. He was just fed up with favored status. He could never go out and do anything without his sire or Penn present. So, they had to approve everything he did. He had been allowed to go out with Dru one time. That hadn’t gone over well. She didn’t understand that he wasn’t supposed to feed from anyone other than family. William knew he wasn’t supposed to, he didn’t like to anyway they all tasted like ash. Angelus had explained that they always would taste off to William because he was a favored. 

Apparently a favored Childe was born to be that way. Then at some point their sires could sense them. They were pulled towards them and that was how a favored was made. So, once they woke some things were different. They could only really feed from family, it was like their taste buds were set up to reject anything that wasn’t family. They could live off other blood, it just tasted horrible. It took William a long time to get over that. Also, favored never really became master vampires. They just never developed the skills to lead others. They just weren’t as strong and they weren’t meant to lead. 

So, when Penn was left in charge, on the rare times that he was, he was almost overbearing. William wasn’t even allowed outside, Angelus at least took him out. William was now holed up in Angelus’ bedroom, which was kind of his bedroom since he slept with his sire all the time unless he wasn’t home. He most decidedly wasn’t sulking, he was just quietly sitting, cursing Penn in his head. Ok so he was sulking a little bit sue him. Angelus wouldn’t have cared about the slayer, of course his sire was strong enough not to worry about him. Nothing could touch the older vampire. 

Sunnydale, 2004

William stopped pacing and picked up an alcohol from the table next to him. He drank too much most of the time. He also smoked too much. Two things that his sire wouldn’t approve of. He also wouldn’t approve of William dying his hair platinum blond, William couldn’t bring himself to cut it though. His sire had always loved his hair, so it still hung in curls down to his neck. He hurled the bottle across the room listening to it shatter. He needed to stop focusing so much on his sire. He hadn’t obsessed this much in years and he didn’t know why he was now.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> dun dun dun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always my disclaimer I own nothing. This is not beta'd so all mistakes are mine. I hope you guys like it, remember comments and kudos are like hugs and cookies to me. They make me happy.

Finally, after what seemed like days the sun set enough to be safe. William walked out into the rapidly darkening evening. He was hoping that his information was correct. He didn’t want to go hunting all over the hellmouth for the slayer and her group. William knew he didn’t have a lot of time left. He would have made it sooner, but he had gotten held up. He’d run into a group of his sire’s minions outside of New York and it took a while to lose them. Although, he would bet large sums of money that he didn’t have on the fact that those minions had already reported to his sire where he had been. William was hoping this meant that his loving family was looking for him in New York. It didn’t help matters that he had gotten drunk and told some demons in a poker game what he planned to do. Hopefully, they would keep their mouths shut. Although, seeing as how William had gotten thrown out of that game for cheating he didn’t think they would. That was the last time he would be getting that drunk during a game. 

William found the slayer just where he was told he would, the high school library. What kind of slayer attended high school? For that matter, what kind of slayer had friends? From what William understood they were supposed to be a secret from the normal world. He shook his head, now wasn’t the time for questions. That had always been a problem for him. He was far too curious and most of his plans were ruined because he couldn’t focus on them long enough. He just got so bored watching and waiting. 

He gathered his thoughts and swaggered out from the behind the shelves of books. Every head snapped up at his less than subtle entrance. He could have come in the front way, but he wanted them to know how bad they were at protecting themselves. Really, you would think having a slayer and a watcher in the same room would mean better protection. William held back a snicker, this one wouldn’t last long.

He studied everyone gathered at the table. The slayer was small, blond, and reeked of power and sickly-sweet perfume. Next to her was a red head. The witch is William had to guess going off the aura of magic surrounding her. If he didn’t have vampire senses he wouldn’t have seen it. She didn’t look like a witch, she more looked like a bookworm. Sitting across from the witch was a dark-haired boy. Nothing really special about him. William had to wonder what he contributed to the team. Standing next to the table was an older man. He studied William with sharp eyes. This would be the watcher. Although, what a watcher was doing letting innocent children participate in what would surely kill them one day, William hadn’t the slightest idea. 

“Seems like a party. Glad I didn’t miss this.” William spoke in the lower class accent he’d adopted to make himself sound more intimidating. It usually worked rather well.

“Who are you?” The slayer asked in a rather snotty tone. William smirked and walked over to lean against the library counter facing the group with his back to the door. He looked very relaxed, but he was really on edge.

“Name’s Spike. I’ve come to make a deal and I don’t have all night. Places to go, people to kill you understand.” They didn’t need to know that William wasn’t planning on killing anyone that night. He only fed when he had to. He didn’t miss the slayer reaching for her stake before the watcher stopped her. That meant the watcher recognized the name. William had taken to using it years back to remain anonymous. Spike was a costume, one he was very good at putting on by now. 

“What deal could you possibly think we would make with a vampire?” The watchers tone was quiet, but William could hear the hostility in it. 

“You’ve heard of me watcher. I know you have, that’s why you stopped your girly from trying to fight me. What I want is simple. Red there does a spell for me and I will help you fight your next big bad.” William wasn’t planning on sticking around forever. He hoped they agreed, it was tedious to find witches willing to do the spell for him. 

“We won’t be helping you with your evil plans. Perhaps you should look elsewhere before I have my slayer kill you.” William actually laughed at the watcher’s threat. It was idle and they both knew it. The slayer wouldn’t live through that fight. 

“It’s not evil, you git. If I wanted evil I could have found a number of people and demons that would help me. I need a white witch, it’s a shielding spell. I have the spell and the ingredients. Simple spell won’t take more than an hour of your time, and you get a experienced fighter for your next battle.” He looked at the table to see the slayer and watcher had taken a protective stance over the other two, but it looked like the watcher was wavering.

“How do we know you will keep your word if we agree.” William opened his mouth to answer the question when a voice behind him cut him off. 

“You want be getting an answer to that question, because that spell won’t be happening.” William froze at the familiar voice. Oh no, they couldn’t have found him here. He looked around for an escape route knowing it was pointless. “You are coming home with us William.” William blew out a deep breath, he was so screwed.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always thank you for the comments and the kudos. I was a little worried when I first started writing this that there would be nobody around to read it, but I was proven wrong. I own nothing and this isn't beta'd so all mistakes are mine. Let me know what you think and i'm always open to hearing ideas, not that I will always put them in but I do like hearing them and sometimes they make it in.

William stood frozen still. He still hadn’t turned around to address the speaker. Once he did, he knew his running was over. William got the idea that maybe the hellmouth was bad luck. He had been running for a long time and now it was all for nothing. Unless, he could make it to the backdoor of the library. It was a stupid plan and would probably never work. The only way his plan would even remotely work is if his sire didn’t have someone guarding the whole building. Angelus was always very meticulous on guarding your perimeter. 

Very slowly the blond turned where he stood to face his sire. The older vampire hadn’t changed much, his hair was way shorter and spiked up with gel, and his clothes were modern. Standing next to Angelus was Penn. Of freaking course, his older brother was here. William loved his whole family, his running away didn’t mean he didn’t love them, he ran because he wanted to prove himself and that was the only way. His sire would never have allowed half the things William had done. William always hated being babied by his brother. Angelus’ oldest childe always got to do whatever he wanted and William had never been able to. Penn had to make it so much worse to, he was always the one that got left in charge if their sire wasn’t around. So, that meant he usually acted like a second sire to William. His brother hadn’t changed much either. His hair was shorter now and he was wearing glasses of all things. The blond would have questioned it, except he was still trying to come up with a getaway plan.

Knowing his family, they had already found his lair. That meant that even if he did manage to escape, he had nowhere to go. This was a problem, because if he made it out of the building he wouldn’t be able to find a place to hide with his family chasing him if he couldn’t go back to his lair. Another problem with this was that William liked having his space all set up. It was part of being a favored childe. You got very used to having things set up a certain way, and it was very disorienting to have that messed even for a short amount of time. That’s why when families moved lairs the favored was usually put to sleep by their sires before. That way the move didn’t stress them out, William had somewhat gotten over that out of necessity, but it still took some preparation on his part. 

William knew it was his fault. He should have set up a second lair, but he had been so sure that his family was on the other side of the country. That had been his mistake to overlook that. William shook his head slightly to clear the thoughts. He couldn’t be going over should have’s, his family was here and now there was nothing he could do about it. William knew his best bet was to go home with his family and find a way to get away from them later. Not that it would be easy, his entire family was bound to be more on guard than they had been before. He was confident he could do it though, the question is did he want to? Part of him loved being on his own, but part of him missed his family deeply. 

“Sire.” He’d meant to just acknowledge the other vampire, to cover up the fact that he had been staring at his sire like he held all the answers to the universe for the last couple minutes, but it came out wistful and fledging like. God, sometimes he hated himself. 

“Come to me, William. You’ve been away for too long.” Angelus spoke holding a hand out. He was talking like William had just gone on an extended vacation, but he could hear the anger underneath the words. Yep, he was in a lot of trouble. Without even really noticing what he was doing, William had moved to stand directly in front of his sire. He figured out what he was doing when he one hand halfway raised to take his sire’s. He forced his arm to drop back to his side. Bad enough that he was being effected this bad by a voice, he didn’t want to think about what would happen if he actually touched his sire’s hand. 

“I wasn’t expecting to see you here.” William honestly didn’t know how they knew he was there. Or more seemed that case, had known he was heading there, because they got there before him. 

“Why wouldn’t I come see my boy? You’ve been very naughty William, not telling me where you were and staying away so long.” If vampires could blush, William would have been very red all over. Here came the babying. 

“Sorry mate, meant to send a postcard never got around to it.” William knew he was playing with fire. And playing with fire when you were a vampire was a very dangerous game. He flinched when a big hand was run through his hair and then that same hand clamped down on the back of his neck.

“We’ll talk about that my sweet. Actually, we should be going. We have a lot to discuss and your bedtime is still sunrise. I won’t budge on that.” Angelus turned and led both his boys out of the library with his hand still on the back of his youngest childe’s neck. The watcher tried to stop them to ask questions and make sense of what just happened, but one growl from Angelus shut him up pretty quick. 

William was led through town with his sire on one side and his brother on the other. A dozen minions followed them at least. William had never had a chance of running and he was very foolish for having thought he could at all. They walked until they reached a mansion on the outskirts of town. Trust his sire to have gotten the fanciest place in town. He liked his comforts, something the master of their order had never been able to understand. Which was fine, William didn’t like him much. The hand that had never moved off his neck pushed him into the huge sitting room. William stumbled a bit before regaining his footing. The push hadn’t been so he would fall over, it was just meant to illustrate how upset his sire was. William looked around the room and stilled when he caught sight of the painting above the fireplace. It was an old painting done when William had only been a couple months old. Angelus was sitting in a high-backed chair, looking exactly like the master that he was and still is. Seated in his lap was Drusilla, who managed to look slightly more sane than usual. Standing at his sire’s right side was Penn, he had a slight smile on his face and one hand laying on the back of the chair like he was just resting there and had been caught by the painter. William himself sat on the floor, in between his sire’s feet looking for all the world like the childe he was. He was leaned back, hugging his knees to his chest and he had his head laying against the inside of Angelus’ knee. He remembered when that had been painted. Angelus kept scolding him for moving and playing with the lace from Dru’s dress that he could reach. William had been so bored. 

“We’ll have to get a new one done now that you are back with us again. I think I would like you on my lap this time William. You would have been there last time, but your sister was in one of her wandering moods. She’s been doing better lately, although she has missed you.” Arms wrapped around his waist while Angelus spoke and William found himself nodding along to the words. “But first we have some things that we need to take care of.” His sire turned him around and led him upstairs without ever losing his grip on his childe.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys. So good news I should be at the point where I can update everything more often now. 
> 
> Let me know what you think of this chapter. As always I don't own anything and all mistakes are my own. I just got a new computer that is way smaller than my last one so I'm still getting used to the keyboard and may have made some mistakes.

London 1883  
William grinned as he dashed around the corner. He couldn’t hear anything behind him, but he didn’t slow down. He knew he couldn’t. If he had been human his lungs would have been burning and his muscles would have been screaming. If he stopped the game would be over and he would be caught. But was being caught so bad? 

 

William darted into the graveyard ahead of him. He knew he had to get to a place where there weren’t any roofs or anything overhead. The graveyard had been the closest place he could think of. His goal was to make it back to the house, but he needed a place where he could hide and think of a plan. 

 

He slipped behind a large statue of an angel and slumped to the ground. Taking a couple minutes to convince his body that it didn’t actually need the air. His blue eyes darted around the graveyard, he needed a plan and he needed one now. William guessed he had maybe three minutes. Three minutes before he needed to move again, this time he needed to move with a plan. That had been his mistake earlier, he had run without thinking. He had just picked a direction and started running. He should have been planning from the very beginning. He let his head fall back against the statue with a soft thump. That was a stupid fledge mistake, the kind of mistake that he had been so set on not making. 

 

The blond vampire pushed up off the ground. If he left the graveyard over the back wall it was a straight shot home. And if he stayed on the rooftops the whole way nobody could sneak up on him. Sometimes William really hated how weak his senses were compared to other vampires. Being a favored meant that your senses were way stronger than any human, but also weaker than any other vampire or demon. His sire said that was because favored didn’t need to hunt. There senses were strong enough to detect danger and that was all they needed. However, that meant it was very easy to sneak up on a favored, which is why they always had an escort with them. 

William pushed off the statue and ran as fast as his legs would allow. He reached the back wall and jumped up grabbing the top ledge ready to pull himself up and over, when strong hands grasped his waist and pulled him back down. He struggled and fought until a soft kiss was placed on his throat. Right over the scar that still existed from when his sire had turned him. 

“Caught you, Will, my boy.” William sighed and stopped fighting at the familiar voice of his sire. He leaned his head back against the strong chest behind him.

“I never stood any chance did I?” He already knew the answer. He had known the outcome when he had suggested the game. He felt rather than heard Angelus chuckle. 

“Will what made you think I would ever let you out of my sight? I always know exactly where you are precious.” William pulled away as much as he could and turned to face his sire. 

“Wait you mean that I never even made it far enough to make it a little of a challenge for you? You were always close enough to see me? I knew I should have played this game with Penn.” He couldn’t hide the outrage and slight disappointment in his voice. He knew he wouldn’t win, but he thought he had at least been smart enough to evade his sire for a little while. Apparently he had been wrong. 

Angelus smiled and pushed the hair out of his youngest childe’s eyes. “You can’t hide from your family Will. We will always find you.” He leaned in and pressed his lips against the blondes. 

Sunnydale 2001

William shook himself out of the memory as he was pushed to sit on a large bed. The room he was in was large and had cream colored walls. He examined the room as his sire busied himself with the dresser. The bed and desk he recognized. His sire had had them for as long as he could remember. Although the bed had a new mattress now. It was the same big four poster frame. He could see the small scratches in one of the posts that he had made while trying to sneak out of bed one day to read a book he had been eyeing in the library and had been told was too violent for his age. Like a little violence was going to hurt him. His sire had caught him and pulled him back into bed causing William to scratch the post he had been using to pull himself out of bed slowly. 

The wardrobe and dresser were both new. As was the bookshelf, although he knew some of the books on it. The floor was covered in thick red carpeting. The kind that you could just sink down in and take a nap. There were also three doors in the room, one he knew went to the hallway. The other two he guessed were to a bathroom and closet. William figured he would get to know this room real well because the chances of him leaving it were little to none for a long time. 

Angelus turned and in his hands he held one of William’s nightshirts. No, looking closer he could see it wasn’t one of his. This one was made of newer material, but it looked just like his old one. His sire must have seen the confusion. 

“Your old clothes are too old and fragile to wear right now. I got you new things. Most of it is current style, but on some things I couldn’t help myself. Now, we need to have a talk. Then you are going to have a bath and go to bed.” He paused, the look in his eyes daring the blond to argue. When he got no argument he continued on. “Here’s how things are going to be. You will not be leaving this house for a long time. And if you do it will be with either myself or Penn. You’ve been running around on your own for too long. That means even the garden William. You will not leave these walls at all by yourself. You are getting a spanking, probably every night until i feel better. Also, forget privileges you don’t have any. You will either remain in this room or you will be with me or your brother. You may be allowed to read the books I give you or watch the television programs I allow, but that is only if you are good. And before I forget, I don’t know why you have done that to your hair, but we are going to fix that. Even if we have to wait for it to grow out, you are going back to your natural hair color. Oh and I know about the smoking and drinking, I can smell them on you. That stops that too. You may have a drink on occasion if I give it to you. Do you understand me?” William nodded his head.

“Yes sire.” He said in a low voice, almost a whisper. He expected all this. Well everything except the spankings. Although, he should have expected that. His sire had never turned down a reason to spank him before. Although according to rumor, Angelus spanked all his childer, even Penn. William had never seen it, but it would be funny if it were true. 

“Ok William. Let’s get this over with and then into the bath with you.” William stood up and then draped himself over his sire’s knees. Angelus placed a hand on his back to keep him in place and William gripped the red blanket in one hand and the fabric of his sire’s pants in the other. Angelus started easy to warm him up, but by the 20th smack he had gotten harder and William was whimpering. Dear god, he was actually whimpering. Could he be any more of a fledge? Angelus stopped at thirty and pulled William’s hands free. He cradled his youngest childe against his chest and rocked back and forth slightly. “There now precious, it’s all over now. You’re a good boy and I love you. That was for your own good. You had to learn from your mistakes.” Angelus just held William until the boy calmed then he picked him up and carried him into the bathroom. “We’ll get you into a nice bath and then into bed. You’ll have a nice feed and then you can sleep.” Angelus set his favored on the counter and moved to fill the bathtub with warm but not too hot water. William whimpered again and shifted on the hard surface of the counter. “I know, sweetheart, it hurts. But you will be ok.” William was tired now, he felt like he could sleep sitting up even with the discomfort from his spanking. He wasn’t taking in his surroundings. Instead he chose to focus on his sire, trying to stay awake and not fall off the counter. Angelus picked him up again to set him in the tub. “I know, my boy has had such a long day. It’s almost over.” Bath time for William usually took a long time. The boy loved his baths and it usually took some persuasion to get him out of them. Tonight was going to be quick though. Angelus was quick and very soon he was pulling his boy out of the tub and drying him off. William whined not wanting to leave the water even though he was practically falling asleep. 

Angelus dried the blonde off and laid him down in the middle of the bed. He dressed him in his nightshirt. Then he changed into pajama pants himself. The older vampire climbed into bed and turned out the lights, settling himself and his childe under the heated blankets. Using his nail he opened a cut in his chest and pulled his childe to feed from the bleeding wound. William’s feeding started out fast and then slowed as the boy fell asleep, still slowly sucking at the wound. Angelus kissed his favored’s still damp curls and followed his childe into sleep as he sensed the sun begin to rise outside. Happy to have his William back in his arms.


	6. Chapter 6

William opened his eyes slowly. He was still taking in his surroundings and as he did this he became aware of several different things. First, he had really missed being bathed in his sire’s scent all the time. Second, his sire was no longer in bed with him, but judging by the strength of the scent surrounding him he hadn’t left that long ago. And last, this was the first time in a long time that he had woken up and hadn’t immediately started planning his next move. He had to admit, right now, not having to plan anything felt really good. William could just lay back and let someone else take care of it. Of course, it would start to get annoying after awhile, that had been what caused him to leave in the first place, never being able to make any choices. 

 

Now, fully awake, he had several things to wonder. What were his sire’s plans? He couldn’t help but wonder if Angelus was going to stay on the hellmouth or if they were going to leave and go somewhere else. Speaking of sire where was his? William could only assume he was downstairs. Angelus didn’t like lying around in bed after he was awake. William, on the other hand, could lay in bed all day if he didn’t have anything better to do, at least when he felt safe. Just as he was about to sink back down into the warm and comforting scent of his sire his stomach decided to make itself known. William sighed, of course the only thing that could drive him from his warm bed was food. 

William slipped from the bed and stretched his sleep heavy limbs out. He opened the door and peeked his head out in the hallway to find it empty, but he could hear the soft murmur of voices coming from downstairs. William tiptoed to the staircase and walked down far enough to see into the living room. Angelus and Penn were sitting in chairs by the fire across from each other conversing over some papers spread out on the small table between them. Angelus had his back to the stairs, but Penn looked up and saw his brother standing on the stairs. Penn stood and held a hand out to his younger brother. William walked down the rest of the stairs and over to the older vampire quickly. Angelus watched his two childer, his eldest and his youngest, reunite. Penn loved his brother, not as much as their sire, but close and he had missed him so much. 

“Did you sleep well, little brother?” The blond nodded and Penn placed a kiss on his forehead, then led him over to their sire. Who wasted no time in pulling his youngest to sit in his lap. 

“Are you hungry my William?” Angelus bit into his wrist and held the bleeding limb in front of his childe who latched on, giving Angelus his answer. Penn took his seat once again and began gathering up the papers on the table. Which made William suspicious. What could they be planning that he couldn’t even know about. They would have to talk about it in front of him at some point. It didn’t seem like his sire was going to let him get very far from his side. So, whatever plans they were discussing he would hear at some point. He stopped feeding when he was full and licked the wound on Angelus’ wrist closed. 

“Where’s Dru?” William went with a safe question instead of the thousands of questions running around his head. He hadn’t seen his sister around, of course that made a bit of sense because he hadn’t really been allowed to be around yet. His sire had pretty much taken him straight upstairs. 

“She will be home later. You know your sister, the stars whispered to her and she followed along.” William felt a rush of old irritation and pulled out of his sire’s embrace who didn’t look too happy about it. 

“Why? Why does she always get to go out alone? She’s insane! I’m not and I can’t do anything ever!” William was standing across from his sire glaring at him. 

Angelus stood and towered over his youngest with a dark glare. “Don’t push me boy. If you recall you have gotten to do whatever you want alone for quite a long time.” William opened his mouth to retort, because his brain never could figure out when a good time to shut up would be. “I would rethink whatever you are about to say. You don’t need anymore punishment.” William shut his mouth with a growl. Angelus pushed his youngest down in a chair. “I think you need time to cool down. You know very well why your sister gets to go out and you don’t. You are a favored and as insane as Dru is she knows the rules and follows them usually. And when she doesn’t she is punished.” William rolled his eyes, but didn’t say anything. Dru never really got punished. Angelus would scold her and then keep her in for a couple days. Of course, Dru just seemed to enjoy punishment so William guessed that was the reason she never got punished like he did. 

William scoffed and pouted when he felt tears actually building up in his eyes. He couldn’t believe he was crying like a child over what was basically a time out and a scolding. William the bloody didn’t cry over anything, William the favored childe cried all the time, because it didn’t seem like he could help himself. He refused to cry like a fledgling over nothing. Of course, it would get him out of trouble, because his sire would feel the need to coo over him and comfort him. It would cost him his dignity and he had already given enough of that up last night. So, he sat glaring at his sire and brother. 

“I can send you back to bed, William, if you are grumpy and need a nap.” Angelus said with a small smile. William couldn’t believe it, here he was giving his sire his best glare, and his sire had the nerve to tease him. He scoffed and turned his head staring into the fire, watching the flames dance. He was in the middle of imagining throwing all of his sire’s favorite books into it when the man in question spoke again. “I am going to speak to the minions, they need to keep a low profile with a slayer in town. Penn, keep an eye on your brother please.” William rolled his eyes. He didn’t need anyone to keep an eye on him. Penn pulled the chair across from from him closer and sat down in it. William ignored him. 

“I fail to see what you think you are going to accomplish by arguing. He’s not going to let you do anything if you continue to give him attitude.” William looked at his brother in disbelief. 

“I’m the one in the wrong?! He swooped in and embarrassed me in front of the slayer and her watcher and all those other children. I’m a vampire! I’m supposed to be scary! They are probably laughing at me.” 

“William, it doesn’t matter what they think. You are being treated as you should. I’m sorry that you don’t agree.” William sighed and swallowed back tears again. It wasn’t fair. 

“Why aren’t you out doing whatever you want?” William was sulking and he could hear it in his own voice. 

“Because I wanted to see my brother. I missed you very much while you were gone.” Penn leaned forward and ran his fingers through William’s hair. William leaned into his touch. He had missed his brother, well his whole family really.

“I missed you too. You are my favorite older brother after all.” William grinned and Penn laughed. 

“I am your only brother, William, older or otherwise.” 

“I know. Still my favorite. Now, do I get clean clothes or do I have to find mine from yesterday?” Even if he couldn’t go out he at least wanted to be dressed. 

“But you look so cute.” Penn teased and then laughed at the glare he got. “I think sire has some things for you to wear. I’m not sure where he keeps them.” At that moment Angelus walked back into the room.

“I’ll get you some things to wear and then we are going out.” Angelus led William back up to his bedroom and handed him a red t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans, along with some black boxers and socks. William changed into them quickly. 

“Where are we going?” William hoped it was nowhere near the slayer. 

“To the mall. You need more clothes, my boy. And I figured while we are there I could get you a couple things to keep you entertained for all our sanity and I’m going to see if they can dye your hair back to normal, I can’t keep looking at that.” William pouted at those words.

“I like my hair.” His protesting was cut short by the look his sire shot him. 

“I’m being lenient letting you out at all. Keep arguing with me and you won’t leave this room for a month and you will spend that month standing because it would hurt to much to sit. Am I clear?” 

“Yes sire.” Angelus pulled the blond into a hug.

“Now let’s go before you get yourself into more trouble.” William was led outside and to the car and didn’t protest when he was led to the back and his sire and brother sat in the front. He was going to have to pick his battles.


	7. Chapter 7

William forced himself to stay awake in the car. He usually fell asleep when he didn’t have anything better to do. It was probably out of boredom. But, he was still a little upset about being back with his sire. He was sure that Angelus wasn’t going to waste a second asserting his dominance, what he had already done was nothing to a favored childe. Spankings happened almost all the time, no the real show of dominance was going to come tonight. William didn’t have any doubt that his sire was going to be the one picking everything out, and he had already said they were dying William’s hair back to normal. 

“Can we at least turn the bloody radio on?” William hated silence. His sire and brother actually seemed to enjoy it most of the time. He couldn’t stand it and neither could Dru, of course the voices in her head often took care of that problem. 

“We might just do that when you can ask politely. I know you have better manners than that.” Angelus spoke in a calm voice and without taking his eyes from the road. Which instantly pissed William off. 

“Oh, I’m sorry can we PLEASE turn the bloody radio on, peaches?” William held onto the seat to avoid falling off it as the car was pulled over and stopped. He looked up to see his sire turned around in his seat and glaring. 

“William, this can go one of two ways. You can stop acting like a spoiled brat and we can get some shopping done. Or I can take you and your brother home and I will shop for all your things on my own, something tells me though that you would like some input. So, which will it be?” Through his whole talk, Angelus hadn’t raised his voice once and his tone through it all was firm yet gentle. 

“I’m sorry sire, please don’t make me go home. Besides, you haven’t had the chance to get me into a changing room. You want to make sure the clothes fit.” The last part was said with a smirk. William couldn’t resist making the comment.

Penn started chuckling. “Have you gained weight, brother? What other reason would sire have to make sure that your clothes fit?” William scowled and stuck his tongue out at the back of his brothers head. 

Angelus laughed and pulled the car back onto the road. “Penn, stop teasing your brother you know he doesn’t take it well. Now, I’m going to drop you off to take care of those things we were discussing. And then I’m going to take William to get his hair done before the salons close. We will pick you up on our way home.” 

William was curious now. “What things? Why can’t we go together?” He hated not knowing things.

“None of your concern. At least not all of it and not yet. You will find out the parts that pertain to you when we get home.” Angelus pulled up in front of what looked like a warehouse, but William couldn’t see any signs or anything indicating what it was or what they sold, however he could sense vampires inside. Now he was very confused, it wasn’t unusual for his sire to have dealings with other vampire clans, but this didn’t seem like one of those times. His sire never liked the clans that lived below ground or in abandoned buildings always said that they didn’t have enough class to blend in with the humans. William didn’t think you needed class to blend in with the humans you just had to be able to fake it. He lived in abandoned buildings for years and never had a problem blending when he needed to, even though he usually tried to not need to. He couldn’t be caught in public too often in case that someone who knew his sire saw him and passed his location along. It had been a little lonely over the years, never really being able to connect with anyone. He turned his attention back to the other passengers in the car just in time to see his sire pull his brother over and kiss his forehead. “Stay safe my eldest.” He released his hold and let Penn climb out of the car. Once his brother was clear William climbed over the seat and made himself comfortable in the passenger seat, putting his feet up on the dash until his sire growled at him. Angelus watched to make sure Penn made it inside ok and then pulled back out onto the street.

“Are you planning on telling me anything or would you like me to make a guessing game out of it?” William asked facing his sire with a smirk.

“No and no. I want you to trust that I have everything under control and will make sure you know things when you need to. You are my youngest and as my youngest you will be told no more than what you need to know. As my favored you do not need to know very much.” William very much hated it when his sire adopted that ‘I know more than you know’ tone. 

“Yeah, yeah I know the deal. The job of the favored is to sit there and look pretty.” William knew that part only too well. Most of the favored actually enjoyed that part of being favored. There was no danger and no mess, they just sat at home and waited. William had always hated that part, he would rather get hurt and know that his family was safe, than be locked up safe at home and have to wait to hear how things had turned out. He always thought he missed some brainwashing class or something. But, his sire had always said that William was just born to run and that it came down to Angelus as sire to allow him to run just enough to curb that impulse. 

“Which you should have no problem doing, you are very pretty already. Even prettier when you don’t feel the need to argue with me about everything. Which, I feel I shouldn’t have to warn you about again, you should be careful of doing because you are already on very thin ice. And if you think I’m being strict now I can only get worse. Instead of being confined to the house you could be confined to our room. See how well you do with that until i feel you can be let out for any length of time again. Or I could have you magically leashed to me, to make it physically impossible for you to get more than ten feet away from me at any given time, but I’m not doing that because I know how much you hate magic. So, just think about that the next time you want to backtalk me.” William didn’t say much else just stared out the window watching everything outside flash past. He almost felt like he was asleep with his eyes open when his sire pulled into the mall parking lot. Angelus parked and William was almost out of the car before it had come to a complete stop. He didn’t go anywhere, just stood by the car, hoping that it would help build some trust with his sire. 

Angelus turned the car off and got out. He walked around the front of the car and put an arm around William’s shoulders, using that to pull the younger man along with him. “Excited?” He asked smirking at the blond. 

“Just hate feeling trapped is all. Never could stand cars any more than I could stand carriages back in the day.” William had always been more comfortable when he had enough room to move around. He had been slightly more comfortable on trains, because he could at least get up and walk around. 

“I remember, that’s why we walked most places. Unless it was raining and we were going somewhere nice.” Angelus spoke still pulling William along. William kind of liked it, he had been in charge of himself for so long, but now he didn’t even have to worry about which direction they were going. His sire would get him where he needed to go. 

Angelus led William into a high end hair salon. He knew his sire would hate his hair. He was just hoping they could dye it back without having to cut it all off. It would grow back out fairly quickly, but he wasn’t looking forward to being bald until then. He missed the conversation going on in front of him between his sire and the hair stylist, who looked a little like a taller version of Dru. He didn’t miss his sire pushing him gently to follow the women that was now touching his hair and talking a mile a minute. William looked back at his sire feeling somewhat betrayed, the bastard wasn’t coming with them. He was staying behind in the waiting area with all the spouses and hair magazines. Well, he should feel pretty comfortable then, if there was one thing that Angelus was more obsessed with than William it was his own hair. 

Thirty minutes later and William was just about ready curse at his sire until his ears bled. After washing his hair in the very uncomfortable sink, which William really didn’t understand his hair had already been clean. The lady who the blonde vampire had decided was even crazier than Dru, had spent what felt like hours putting this goop in Williams hair. He hated it, it made his eyes water and his scalp burn, and he just wanted it off more than he wanted anything. William felt like he could cry tears of relief when she led him back to the sink once again to wash the dye out. From what he paid attention to, which wasn’t much, he had gathered that his sire was having his hair dyed back to as close to his natural color as possible until it could grow out on its own. 

Ten minutes after that, his hair had been dried, trimmed, and styled. The women, whose name William never caught, led him back to his sire. Angelus put his hands on William’s shoulders and smiled like a kid in a candy store. William was well aware of how much his sire liked to get his way.

“Are we just going to stand here all day, cause that would get pretty boring.” Angelus gave him a glare and walked off toward the cash register with the still chatty woman. William slipped outside to get away from the horrible smell of hair dye while his sire paid. He was going to have to wash his hair about a million more times, even when he was bleaching his hair he had hated the smell. The smart thing would have been to stop doing it and then he wouldn’t have to put up with it, but it had been his act of rebellion. 

William sighed looking up at the sky, wishing he could see the stars. He had always cursed big cities, when he had been human, you could see what seemed like millions of stars in the sky, now you were lucky to see one or two in big cities. He really wanted a cigarette, vampires couldn’t get addicted to things like humans, but he liked having something to do with his hands when he was nervous or anxious and being back with his family he was both of those. He didn’t have any though, and he was probably never going to have them again. Angelus had always hated the way the smoke had clung to his hair and clothes. William vagually registered the sound of the door opening and then he was pulled back against a strong chest behind him with arms around his waist in an iron grip. 

“You are really determined to drive me crazy, aren’t you?” William wasn’t surprised at the soft tone that his sire took. He could hear the anger and the fading panic. Maybe coming outside wasn’t the best idea, but he had been getting a headache and he wasn’t even sure that was possible for a vampire without a head injury. The best thing for him to do right now would be to apologize and to hope that Angelus was willing to go easy on him. 

“Don’t know what you’re talking about. Isn’t everyone always going on about this being a free country? Think that means I can walk outside if I want to.” He just barely held off calling his sire some kind of insult. He had a headache, was tired, and hungry, and really wanted a smoke. So, Angelus could just deal with his bad mood. After all it was his fault, William would have been happy staying in and nesting at least for a night.

Angelus growled low and long. Then he let go altogether and grabbed William by the ear. Which meant that the smaller vampire had no choice but to move the way his sire wanted him to. It crossed his mind that if he moved the wrong way his sire could very well rip his ear off. It wouldn’t cause a permanent injury, but it would hurt and itch while it was growing back. “There is no such thing as a free country for you, boy. Every move you make is at my command. You would do well to remember that.” 

The dark vampire let go only to wrap his arm around William’s waist. He led the younger around the mall and into a clothing store where he proceeded to pick out clothes and pile them into his waiting childe’s arms. William wasn’t really paying much attention, knowing that he had no real say in what was chosen. That is until his sire started to pick out sweaters. Honest to god sweaters. His sire was apparently trying to make him look like that kid in high schools all across the country that got beat on because they were dressed by their mothers. He guessed, in a way he was like those kids just instead of a mother it was his sire. William knew just what he was going to look like at the end of this. Honey blonde curls and dressed like a nerd. He hoped that some teenager wasn’t going to try to beat him up for his lunch money on principle. 

He sighed as he was led back to a changing room. Why did he have to try this stuff on? His sire already knew his sizes. William didn’t question it though, he was already on thin ice. He tried on all the clothes, coming out to show his sire each outfit. Angelus would turn him this way and thought to see how the clothes looked on him. With each outfit the clothes in the dressing room diminished and the clothes in the pile next to the older vampire grew. Angelus put very few items of clothing back and again William had to wonder what the hell he was doing trying anything on. His only guess was that his sire was killing time until they had to pick Penn up from his important secret outing. Once the younger vampire was back in his clothes he followed his sire to the cash registers to pay. 

The rest of the mall trip turned out to be fun. William was able to pull his sire to all sorts of stores. He got new books (approved by his sire), new CD’s (also approved by his sire), new movies (again approved by his sire), and new video games (you guessed it, approved by his sire). He also got a new television, game system, stereo, and DVD player. Angelus told him that they were going to set him up a room, kind of a cross between an in-home theater and a game room. William was really looking forward to that room, however he had also been told that if he misbehaved that room would be locked until his sire thought he earned it back. William figured that room was probably going to be locked a lot. So, he was trying not to get too attached to it in his head. In a different store he picked out lots of soft blankets and large pillows. Screw anyone that judged him, favored liked to nest. It was just kind of something they did without thinking about. They surround themselves with soft things and things that smelled like family. 

On the way home William sat in the front seat. He sat as close to his sire as possible and leaned his head against his sires shoulder and closed his eyes. His headache was mostly gone now, he was pretty sure it had just been from the horrible smell in the hair salon. He felt better and now he was a little sleepy and a lot hungry. Angelus stopped by to pick up Penn who made some remark about a delivery tomorrow after getting into the back seat. Then strangely enough the other back door opened and Dru slipped in making some comment about blackbirds that didn’t make all that much sense. The world was in and out of focus and William didn’t register the car stopping. He did notice when his sire got out, but he was too tired to come out of his slumped state. The last thing he noticed was cool air and strong arms carrying him. Then he was floating away dreaming of cool nights in London and the everlasting presence of his sire.


End file.
